Impedance tuner systems and probes

ABSTRACT

An impedance tuner may include a transmission media for propagating RF signals, a reflection magnitude control device mounted in a fixed position relative to a direction of signal propagation along said transmission media, and a phase shifter to control a reflection phase. A multi-section probe for an impedance tuner system may include a plurality of probe sections and a holder structure for mechanically supporting the plurality of probe sections.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.60/714,972 filed Sep. 7, 2005, U.S. application Ser. No. 11/468,433,filed Aug. 30, 2006, and is a division of U.S. application Ser. No.12/555,765, filed Sep. 8, 2009 now U.S Pat. No. 7,808,336, which in turnis a division of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/468,433, filed Aug. 30,2006, which in turn claims priority from U.S. Provisional ApplicationNo. 60/714,972, filed Sep. 7, 2005; the entire contents of each of theseapplications hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

A slide screw tuner includes a transmission line in some media, such ascoaxial, slabline, waveguide, microstrip, etc. One or more probes canmove perpendicular to the center conductor. As a probe moves closer tothe center conductor, the mismatch at some frequency will increase,while the mismatch decreases as the probe moves away from the centerconductor. At some point, when the probe is far enough away, it has verylittle effect on the fields around the center conductor, so thetransmission line looks nearly like a uniform line without a deliberatemismatch.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Features and advantages of the disclosure will readily be appreciated bypersons skilled in the art from the following detailed description whenread in conjunction with the drawing wherein:

FIG. 1 is an isometric cutaway view of an automated tuner with a movingcarriage.

FIG. 2 schematically illustrates a technique of controlling phase of themismatch in a tuner.

FIG. 3 is a simplified schematic block diagram of an impedance tuner.

FIG. 4 is a simplified schematic block diagram of an alternateembodiment of an impedance tuner.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a 2-section probe with a single gap.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary embodiment of a 4-sectionprobe.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a 6-section probe.

FIG. 8 schematically illustrates a 2-section probe embodiment with adielectric holder connecting the two sections.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary embodiment of a 4-sectionprobe with a dielectric holder connecting the four sections.

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of a 4-section probe with a thin holderconnecting the four sections.

FIG. 11 illustrates the 4-section probe of FIG. 10 in the context of anexemplary slab line transmission line.

FIG. 12 diagrammatically illustrates a cross section of a moving groundplane that will change the line impedance as the ground plane moves.

FIG. 13 shows a similar cross section, but moves the impedance in theopposite direction of the moving ground plane embodiment of FIG. 12.

FIG. 14 illustrates an embodiment with fixed and movable ground planes.

FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram of a tuner with a high reflection andvariable phase.

FIG. 16 is a schematic diagram of a tuner with high reflection andvariable phase, wherein a frequency of the high reflection may bevaried.

FIG. 17 is a schematic diagram of an alternate embodiment of a tunersystem.

FIG. 18 illustrates an exemplary load pull block diagram.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description and in the several figures of thedrawing, like elements are identified with like reference numerals. Thefigures are not to scale, and relative feature sizes may be exaggeratedfor illustrative purposes.

FIG. 1 schematically depicts an exemplary embodiment of an automatedtuner system 500. In this embodiment, a base plate 502, an end plate 504and ground plane slabs 508, 510 are fabricated of a metal or metalizeddielectric material. A center conductor 506 is supported between theground plane slabs 508, 510, and by a coaxial connector (not visible inFIG. 1) fitted into the end wall 504. A probe 512 is mounted on acarriage 514 for motion transverse to the center conductor axis. A motor516 drives the probe 512 along the transverse path toward or away fromthe center conductor axis. The carriage is driven along a path parallelto the center conductor axis, by a leadscrew 520 driven by a carriagedrive motor 518. In an exemplary embodiment, moving the carriageprimarily results in changing the phase of the reflection.

An aspect of one embodiment provides a technique of controlling phase ofthe mismatch in a tuner. FIG. 2 schematically illustrates thistechnique, in an RF circuit structure 10. Here, a variable impedance ispresented at terminal 12. In one exemplary embodiment, a device undertest (DUT) may be connected at node 12, and the variable impedancepresented to the DUT. In some embodiments, node 18 may be terminated bya load or measuring instrument, e.g. a power meter, spectrum analyzer,network analyzer etc. . . . In this exemplary embodiment, the phase isvaried with a phase shifter 14 inserted between the reflection magnitudecontrol 16 and the DUT 20 as shown in FIG. 2. This allows the reflectionmagnitude control to be mounted in a fixed location in the transmissionline media. For example, in FIG. 1, the probe 512 remains stationary,and a movable carriage may be omitted. In this case, a phase shifter isadded, e.g. at the center conductor connector.

The phase shifter may be of any type, although the required mismatchrange may put requirements on the maximum loss that can be tolerated.Examples of phase shifters include but are not limited to linestretchers, switched lines, PIN diode phase shifters, varactor diodephase shifters, MEM phase shifters and ferrite phase shifters.Typically, the phase shifter is a variable phase shifter, which may bemanually controlled or under an automated control.

This approach to controlling the phase provides flexibility in thedesign of the reflection magnitude control, since it may be mounted in afixed location in the transmission line. The reflection magnitudecontrol may be a mechanical probe that moves perpendicular to thetransmission media (the center conductor in a TEM line) or it may be asolid state reflection magnitude control, such as a PIN diode orvaractor circuit.

An exemplary embodiment of an impedance tuner 50 is schematicallyillustrated in FIG. 3. A mechanical line stretcher 54 is used as thephase shifter, and a mechanical probe 56 is mounted in a slab linetransmission line 58. In this exemplary embodiment, the line stretcher54 is mounted in the same slab transmission line as the reflectioncontrol or mismatch element 56, although they could also be mounted inseparate units, and connected with external connectors. Either or boththe line stretcher 54 or mismatch probe 56 may be controlled manually orautomated to move the line stretcher along its axis and the probe alongits axis.

Another exemplary embodiment of an impedance tuner 70 is shownschematically in FIG. 4. In this exemplary embodiment, a switched linephase shifter 72 is used for the phase shifter, and a shunt PIN diode 74is used as a solid state impedance mismatch element. A DC bias currentmay be applied by a bias circuit (not shown in FIG. 4). A transmissionline 78 connects input terminal 76, at which a variable impedance may bepresented, to the phase shifter. Another transmission line section 80connects the output of the phase shifter to a circuit node 84 at whichthe diode is connected. Another transmission line section 82 isconnected between the node 84 and the output terminal 86. With no DCbias current through the diode 74, the impedance mismatch is low. As theDC current is increased, the mismatch increases until the diode shortsthe center conductor of the transmission line sections 80, 82 to groundfor a very high mismatch. The phase of the mismatch is varied with thephase shifter. In this exemplary embodiment, the entire circuit may beimplemented in one microstrip circuit, but the phase shifter andmismatch element may alternatively also have been packaged in separatehousings. In this example, automated electronic control of the switchingand diode mismatch may be used, although it could also be set up formanual control.

When a probe such as probe 512 (FIG. 1) or probe 56 (FIG. 3) is used forreflection magnitude control, then the mismatch varies from zero tomaximum as the mechanical probe is moved toward the center conductor.The range from zero to the maximum mismatch value is also called thematching range. Increasing the maximum mismatch value also increases thematching range.

In an exemplary embodiment, the probe may have multiple sections. Inprinciple, it can be any number of sections, and, in an exemplaryembodiment, designed using filter design techniques to obtain anincreased matching range and a specific bandwidth for a particularapplication.

An exemplary design approach for a multi-section probe is to use an evennumber of mismatch sections that alternate with gaps. In a gap betweenany two sections, the transmission line will look nearly like thetransmission line without a mismatch probe, and the lengths of themismatch sections and gaps are selected to give the desired mismatchresponse vs. frequency. In this exemplary design approach, the impedanceof all sections may be variable as the probe is moved perpendicular tothe center conductor. All sections may have approximately the same crosssection and move together so that for any given position, they are allapproximately at the same distance from the center conductor. Therefore,for any given position the characteristic impedance of all sections willbe approximately the same. Note that assuming that all the sections areidentical is useful for analysis, but not required in practice. Onlyminor effects are likely to occur due to some deviation due tomanufacturing tolerances or the accuracy of the mechanics that move theprobe relative to the center conductor.

In an exemplary design approach, a design criteria may be to select across section of the probe that gives a good matching range, and toselect the lengths of the mismatch sections and gaps. The cross sectionof the probe may be (although is not limited to) the same as used insingle-section probes.

In exemplary embodiments of a design approach, the lengths of thesections and gaps for ideal transmission line sections for probes ofdifferent numbers of sections are as follows:

For a 2-section probe, the length of each section and the one gap mayall be equal. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a 2-section probe 90 witha single gap. In this embodiment, each probe section 92 and 96 has acharacteristic impedance Z₁ and a length L₁. The gap 94 has a length L₁and a characteristic impedance equal to the base characteristicimpedance of the transmission line with the probe removed, e.g. in oneembodiment, 50 ohms. The characteristic impedance of the probe sectionsis variable as the probe moves closer to or further away from the centerconductor.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary embodiment of a 4-sectionprobe 100. For a 4-section probe, the first two sections 102 and 106 andthe first gap 104 may all be equal in length L₁. The next two sections110, 114 and two gaps 108, 112 may all be one-half of the length of theprior two sections, i.e. L₁/2. Each probe section has a characteristicimpedance Z₁ which is variable as the probe is moved closer to orfurther from the center conductor. Each gap 104, 108, 112 has acharacteristic impedance of 50 ohms.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a 6-section probe 120. For a 6-sectionprobe, the first two sections 122, 126 and the first gap 124 should allbe equal in length, with length L₁. The next two sections 130, 134 andtwo gaps 128, 132 may all be one-half of the length of the prior twosections, i.e. L₁/2. The third pair of sections 138, 142 and two gaps136, 140 should also all be one-half of the length of the prior twosections, i.e. L₁/4.

In an exemplary embodiment of a design approach, additional sections maybe added in pairs with also a pair of gaps, and each time a pair isadded, each section length and gap length will be one-half the length ofthe prior pair of sections. Note that this halving of lengths each timetwo sections are added is for the ideal transmission line case. Inpractice, the physical lengths may be adjusted to account for endeffects and other physical transmission line effects for the specifictransmission media that is used.

Some exemplary embodiments of probe designs for a slab lineconfiguration are shown in FIGS. 8-11. FIG. 8 diagrammaticallyillustrates a 2-section probe embodiment 150, including probe sections152, 154, with a dielectric holder 156 mechanically supporting the twoprobe sections. The dielectric holder includes a tab portion 156A forattaching the holder to a drive mechanism. The probe section/gap lengthsand impedances are similar to those discussed above regarding FIG. 5.

FIG. 9 is an isometric diagram of an exemplary embodiment of a 4-sectionprobe 160 with a dielectric holder 180 connecting the four sections 162,166, 170 and 174. Gaps 164, 168, and 172 separate the four probesections. The probe section/gap lengths and impedances are similar tothose discussed above regarding FIG. 6. The sections are mounted to adielectric holder 180 in such a way as to define the gaps between them.Holes 180A are formed in the holder 180 for attaching the holder to adrive mechanism.

FIG. 10 is an isometric of an exemplary embodiment of a 4-section probe200 with a thin holder 218 connecting the four probe sections 202, 206,210, 214. The probe section/gap lengths and impedances are similar tothose discussed above regarding FIG. 6. In this case the holder may bedielectric or metal. The thickness of the holder is thinner than theprobes, so that the fields to ground will mostly be from the probesections to the slab line walls. In the case of a thin metal holderstructure, the probe and holder may be fabricated as a unitarystructure.

FIG. 11 illustrates the 4-section probe of FIG. 10 in the context of aslab line transmission line 300. Here, the line 300 includes a baseplate 302 and separated parallel ground plane slabs 304, 306 mountedtransversely on the top of the base plate. A center conductor 308 issupported between the ground plane slabs 304, 306. The probe structure200 may be mounted for movement along the center conductor, and alsotransversely to the center conductor, as illustrated with respect toFIG. 1.

A multi-section probe may be mounted on a carriage as depicted in FIG.1, and the whole probe moved along the center conductor to control thephase.

This disclosure is not limited to dielectric holders to support multipleprobe sections. Dielectric holders may work best when the probes areintended to be non-contacting with the ground slabs. However, if theprobes are designed to make direct electrical contact with the groundslabs, then the supporting holder may be made out of any material,including metal, because the electromagnetic fields will not penetratesignificantly to the holder area. In this case, any number of sectionscould even be made out of one piece of metal. One embodiment of thiswould be to slot the probes from the underside (directly above thecenter conductor). The slot may be compressed when the probes areinserted in between the slabs, providing spring action side to sideagainst both slabs.

Another approach to the multi-section probe design may use sectionswhich may be either higher or lower impedance than the characteristicimpedance of the basic transmission line media. This provides freedom inthe tuner design, and more traditional filter approaches may be used.

An exemplary embodiment of an impedance tuner design with transmissionline sections that may be either higher or lower impedance than thebasic transmission line may use a moving ground plane. Electrically,this is equivalent to moving a probe closer to the center conductor, butin this case, the center conductor is fixed and the ground plane moves.FIG. 12 diagrammatically illustrates a cross section of a moving groundplane structure 230 that will change the line impedance as the groundplane moves relative to a fixed center conductor 236. The gap betweenthe opposed ground planes 232 and 234 tapers from a larger gap G1 to asmaller gap G2 just slightly larger than the diameter of the centerconductor. The line impedance with the ground plane structure positionedsuch that the center conductor 236 is in the larger gap is Z₀ (orhigher), and with the ground plane structure positioned such that thecenter conductor is positioned at the smaller gap G2 is a lowerimpedance.

FIG. 13 shows a cross section similar to that of FIG. 12, but moves theimpedance in the opposite direction of the moving ground planeembodiment of FIG. 12. Here, the gap between the ground planes 242, 244is tapered between the gap size G1 and a larger size G3. In this casethe line impedance with the ground plane structure 240 positioned withthe center conductor at G1 is at Z₀ (or lower), and increases to ahigher impedance with the ground plane structure positioned with thecenter conductor 246 at G3. If sections are made from both embodimentsof FIGS. 12-13, then some sections may be increasing impedance at thesame time that other sections are decreasing impedance. This providesdesign freedom. This also allows traditional filter design approaches tobe used, since they often require both high and low impedance sections.

In the exemplary example of the moving ground plane, multiple sectionsmay be cascaded. At one end of the motion, all sections may be set tothe characteristic impedance of the basic transmission line (Z₀), sothere the reflection magnitude is small. At the other end of the motion,some or all of the sections may be different in impedance, either higheror lower, to create the maximum mismatch. A filter design approach maybe used to design the line impedances for the maximum mismatch position.The same design approach could also be used at intermediate positions tocontrol how the overall reflection varies with position.

In FIGS. 12 and 13, the ground planes are shown open on both ends, butthat is not necessary. There may be many possible advantages to closingthe ends, depending on the overall tuner configuration.

An exemplary embodiment of a tuner using a moving ground plane may besimilar to the embodiment of FIG. 1, with fixed ground plane slabs ateach end with a center conductor fixed between the ends, but the centerpart of the ground plane slabs are different. In the center, the fixedground plane slabs may be cut away, and replaced with movable groundplane slabs. The movable slabs may include one or more sections. Anexemplary embodiment is shown in FIG. 14, in which fixed slab sections304A, 306A are positioned on opposite sides of a center conductor 308.Movable slab sections 242A and 244A are positioned with non-contactingjoints 248A, 248B adjacent to the fixed slab sections. One embodiment isto use multiple sections similar to the embodiments of FIGS. 12 and 13,where the sections of each of the two slabs are either bolted togetheror machined out of one piece. The two slabs 242A, 244A then may bemechanically moved up and down. At one end of motion, all of thesections give a ground plane separation from the center conductor thatis the same as the basic transmission line in the areas with fixed slabs304A, 306A at each end of the tuner. At the opposite end of motion, eachsection of the movable slabs 242A, 244A gives a ground plane separationto produce a specific desired characteristic impedance for that section.The desired impedance of each section may be determined during thedesign process so that collectively, the sections together produce adesired reflection vs. frequency.

If a moving ground plane configuration is used, a choke section may beused to help ensure a robust and stable ground plane connection to thefixed ground plane of the main housing, as shown in FIG. 14. The chokesection or sections will help make good ground plane continuity withoutrequiring a good physical contact. This provides good, stableperformance with low mechanical friction.

Normally, if there is a gap in the ground plane, energy may propagateinto and even out through the gap, causing losses and/or sensitivitiesto the environment outside the ground plane. It may also causeresonances at some frequencies based on the construction geometries. Achoke section may comprise a slot cut into the ground plane parallel tothe gap to reduce propagation of energy past the slot, reflecting itback out of the gap as if there was a direct connection at that point. Achoke section may not reflect all the energy, and may work only over alimited bandwidth, so multiple choke sections may be used to obtainbetter performance or broader bandwidth.

In a further aspect, a tunable reflection, e.g., a very high reflectionmagnitude, may be created at a desired frequency. This might typicallybe at a harmonic frequency, but is not limited to that. If tuningadjustment is included, it will vary the frequency of the highreflection. An exemplary embodiment of this type of reflection controlis shown schematically in FIG. 15 as system 260. A shunt stub 262 isconnected to the main transmission line 264 at a fixed location. Thestub may be an open stub, a shorted stub, or a stub terminated with anyother high reflection 268. A phase shifter 266 in front of the stuballows the phase of the high reflection to be varied. This is useful,for example, for impedance tuning at a harmonic frequency where theapplication requires a high reflection but at a variable phase. Anadvantage of this approach is that the fixed location allows a good,low-loss connection that will be stable over time.

Another exemplary embodiment may use a stub 272 with a tunable length,connected to the main transmission line 274, as shown in the system 270of FIG. 16. This allows the frequency of the high reflection to bevaried. This allows operation over a range of frequencies. A phaseshifter 276 in front of the stub allows the phase of the high reflectionto be varied.

An alternate approach is to use a shunt transmission line stub withadjustable length, terminated with a high reflection of arbitrary phaseother than an open or a short that can move along the line with amovable connection. The phase may be varied by moving the shunt linealong the main transmission line, eliminating the need for a phaseshifter in front of the shunt line.

Some transmission line media, such as waveguide, do not have centerconductors. In that case, the probe moves into the electromagneticfields in such a way to cause a mismatch on the transmission line. Theconcept is the same as for transmission line media with centerconductors. Therefore, even though exemplary embodiments described abovehave employed media with center conductors as examples, the principle isgeneral and applies to all media types.

A schematic diagram of an exemplary embodiment of a tuner system 400utilizing several of the elements described above is shown in FIG. 17. Aphase shifter (line stretcher) 54 as described above regarding FIG. 3 isconnected between the DUT port 402 and an adjustable length shunt stub272 as described above regarding FIG. 16. A probe 200 as described aboveregarding FIG. 10 is mounted in a slabline comprising a center conductor506 similar to that illustrated in FIG. 1, and connected to the shuntstub 272. In combination, these provide independent tuning at afundamental frequency and the second harmonic frequency. The probe maybe made of any number of sections, including only one section.

The operation of the tuner system of FIG. 17 is as follows: First, thelength of the shunt stub 272 is adjusted to give maximum reflection atthe second harmonic frequency and low reflection at the fundamentalfrequency, as seen at the DUT port 402. Second, the length of the linestretcher 54 is adjusted to give the desired phase at the secondharmonic frequency as seen at the DUT port. Third, the probe 200 ismoved to set the impedance at the fundamental frequency at the DUT port402, compensating for the new positions of the shunt stub 272 and linestretcher 54. The probe 200 is moved transverse to the center conductor506 to control magnitude (primarily) at the fundamental frequency andthe probe carriage is moved along the line to control phase (primarily)at the fundamental frequency.

The tuner system 400 of FIG. 17 could be modified in many ways. Onevariation is to add another line stretcher and adjustable length shuntstub, similar to that shown in FIG. 16, in front of the existing set atthe DUT port 402. This would enable tuning at the fundamental and twoharmonic frequencies. Other variations could be made by substituting anycombination of the tuning elements already described with each other orwith conventional tuners.

An exemplary embodiment of applying the tuners described above is forload pull measurements. In general, load pull is any application where aDevice Under Test (DUT) will be measured while the impedance presentedto it on any DUT port may be varied (“pulled”). This includes both powerand noise parameter measurements.

FIG. 18 illustrates an exemplary load pull block diagram. In the exampleof FIG. 18, the DUT may be a microwave transistor mounted in the MT950BTest Fixture, marketed by Maury Microwave Corporation, with the input onthe left side of the fixture and the output on the right side of thefixture. A tuner (labeled MT98X, one of the tuners available from MauryMicrowave Corporation) is then connected on both the input and output,so that the impedances may be controlled at both measurement planes. DCbias is applied to the DUT with a bias supply and a signal generatorprovides an input signal at the desired measurement frequency. Threepower meters are then used to measure incident power, reflected power,and output power of the DUT. The basic measurements are then de-embeddedto the DUT input and output planes to show the performance of the DUTalone. The de-embedding is done using data describing the systemcomponents that is determined in an earlier calibration step. In thisexample, all of the measurement equipment, including the tuners, iscontrolled by software on a computer connected to the load pull systemthrough a GPIB connection.

A wide variety of instrumentation is available to include in a load pullsystem, depending on what aspect of DUT performance is to be measured.FIG. 18 is only an example of one basic load pull setup.

The DUT performance typically depends on the impedances seen by the DUTat the input and output, so the tuners play the important role ofcreating the desired impedance at each plane.

Among the aspects of embodiments of the disclosure are the following:

-   -   An impedance tuner with a reflection magnitude control in a        fixed position and using a phase shifter to control the        reflection phase.    -   An impedance tuner with a reflection magnitude control in a        fixed position and using a phase shifter to control the        reflection phase used in a load pull application.    -   An automated impedance tuner with a reflection magnitude control        in a fixed position and using a phase shifter to control the        reflection phase.    -   An impedance tuner using a line stretcher for phase control and        with a reflection magnitude control in a fixed position.    -   A multi-section probe (more than 1 section) with a dielectric        structure that supports the sections mechanically.    -   A multi-section probe (more than 1 section) with a thin holder        of either dielectric or metal that supports the sections        mechanically.    -   A multi-section probe with more than 2 sections.    -   A multi-section probe with more than 2 sections, with a        dielectric structure that supports the sections mechanically.    -   A multi-section probe with more than 2 sections, with a thin        holder of either dielectric or metal that supports the sections        mechanically.    -   The design procedure explained above as an exemplary design        procedure for any multi-section probe (more than 1 section).    -   The design procedure explained above as an exemplary design        procedure for any multi-section probe with more than 2 sections.    -   An impedance tuner that varies impedance by moving sections of        the ground plane.    -   An adjustable impedance tuner that uses impedance(s) higher than        the basic line impedance.    -   A multi-section impedance tuner that uses line sections with        impedances higher than the basic line impedance.    -   A multi-section adjustable impedance tuner that uses line        sections, with some impedances higher than the basic line        impedance, and some impedances lower than the basic line        impedance.    -   An impedance tuner that creates a very high reflection at a        specified frequency using any shunt stub at a fixed location,        and a phase shifter of any type to control the reflection phase.    -   An impedance tuner that creates a very high reflection at a        specified frequency using any shunt stub with variable length at        a fixed location, and a phase shifter of any type to control the        reflection phase. The variable length of the shunt stub provides        frequency tuning of the high reflection. The phase and frequency        control may be manual or automated.

Although the foregoing has been a description and illustration ofspecific embodiments of the invention, various modifications and changesthereto can be made by persons skilled in the art without departing fromthe scope and spirit of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. An impedance tuner, comprising: a transmissionmedia for propagating RF signals; a reflection magnitude control devicemounted in a fixed position relative to a direction of signalpropagation along said transmission media; and a variable phase shifterdevice to control a reflection phase, said variable phase shifter devicemounted in a fixed position relative to said direction of signalpropagation.
 2. The impedance tuner of claim 1, wherein the reflectionmagnitude control device includes a mechanical probe arranged formovement transverse to said direction of signal propagation.
 3. Thetuner of claim 1, wherein the reflection magnitude control devicecomprises a solid state reflection control device.
 4. The tuner of claim1, wherein the reflection magnitude control device comprises a movingground plane structure arranged for movement relative to a fixedconductor of the transmission media.
 5. The tuner of claim 1, whereinsaid transmission media is selected from the group consisting of coaxialline, microstrip line, slabline, stripline and waveguide.
 6. Theimpedance tuner of claim 1, wherein the phase shifter device is a deviceselected from the group consisting of line stretcher phase shifters,switched line phase shifters, PIN diode phase shifters, varactor diodephase shifters, and ferrite phase shifters.
 7. A load pull measurementsystem, comprising the impedance tuner of claim
 1. 8. The impedancetuner of claim 1, comprising an automated actuator controlled by anelectronic controller to adjust the reflection magnitude control device.9. The impedance tuner of claim 8, wherein the phase shifter is avariable phase shifter responsive to control signals from the electroniccontroller to set the phase shifter value.
 10. An impedance tunersystem, comprising: a transmission media for propagating RF signals; aprobe system mounted in a fixed position relative to a direction ofsignal propagation along said transmission media; a variable phaseshifter device to control a reflection phase; and wherein the probesystem includes: a plurality of probe sections; a holder structure formechanically supporting the plurality of probe sections; and a mechanismto move the plurality of probe sections and the holder structuretogether in a direction transverse to the direction of signalpropagation.
 11. The tuner system of claim 10, wherein said probesections have approximately same cross section and are movable togetherin a direction transverse to the direction of signal propagation so thatfor any given position, said probe sections are all approximately at thesame distance from an axis of the transmission media.
 12. The tunersystem of claim 10, further comprising: a mechanism to move theplurality of probe sections and the holder structure in a directionparallel to the direction of signal propagation.
 13. The tuner system ofclaim 10, wherein the plurality of probe sections and the holderstructure are in a fixed position relative to the direction of signalpropagation.
 14. A load pull measurement system, comprising the tunersystem of claim
 10. 15. The tuner system of claim 10, An impedance tunersystem, comprising: a transmission media for propagating RF signals; aprobe system mounted in a fixed position relative to a direction ofsignal propagation along said transmission media; a variable phaseshifter to control a reflection phase; and wherein the probe systemincludes: a plurality of probe sections; a holder structure formechanically supporting the plurality of probe sections; and a mechanismto move the plurality of probe sections and the holder structure in adirection transverse to the direction of signal propagation; and whereinsaid plurality of probe sections comprises an even number of spacedprobe mismatch sections, and adjacent sections are separated by a gap.16. The tuner system of claim 15, wherein lengths of the probe mismatchsections and the respective gaps are selected to provide a desiredmismatch response as a function of frequency.